Crews Fighting Fire Just Over City Line

August 04, 1999

BERLIN — Town fire crews worked into the late evening Tuesday trying to control a fire that was burning slowly across nearly 10 acres of forest on hills along the border with Meriden.

Three of the town's four volunteer departments worked to contain the fire that broke out in the late afternoon in the southwest corner of town, near Meriden's reservoirs. Hampered by darkness, the crews were pulled back starting around 9 p.m., according to Mark Lewandowski, chief of the Kensington District Fire Department.

The Berlin firefighters will work with officials from the state Department of Environmental Protection to devise a plan to attack the fire once there is daylight, Lewandowski said.

There was no immediate risk to homes or other property in the area, Lewandowski said. ``We will keep people on in the area through the night to monitor the situation, just in case,'' he added.

The fire has burned through brush and jumped across trees in the area of Meriden's three reservoirs in the south end of Berlin, west of the Chamberlin Highway. The fire has been contained on west by the rock cliffs, Lewandowski said.

Members of the Southington and Meriden fire departments are monitoring the area in case the fire spreads, officials from those departments said.